Texas mayor instructs police to limit co-operation with ICE

The mayor of Houston, Texas, has directed the city's police to limit co-operation with federal immigration officials.

The move by John Whitmire, a Democrat, comes on the heels of stunning victories by the party in Texas during this week's midterm elections. It breaks with policy set by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who lost his re-election bid.

"I do this to begin a healing process," Whitmire said on Friday, and to "reduce fear and anxiety across our community". He added: "I also do this knowing that elections matter."

There has been months of public outcry in Houston after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot a man who was driving to work.

Houston police chief Noe Diaz said on Friday that officers will now only contact ICE if someone they arrest for a jailable offence also has an administrative ICE warrant, which are issued internally by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), within which ICE operates.

"For example, if our police officers pull someone over for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives a citation and goes about their day," Diaz said.

Under the previous rules, Houston police officers were required to inform ICE if anyone they were dealing with came up as having one of these warrants attached to their name when they were searched on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) - a digital database that includes records on wanted persons, stolen property, certain missing people and those arrested and fingerprinted for serious offences.

Whitmire said on Friday that he had directed the Houston Police Department to make the changes through an executive order.

He also called on Congress to change federal immigration rules, saying "ICE needs better training. They need body cameras. They need to be trained in de-escalation."

He added, "But this can only be done in Washington. I can only control what I can control."

In response, a spokesperson for the DHS told Houston's NBC affiliate, KPRC 2, in a statement: "We remain disappointed that sanctuary politicians seek to limit cooperation with ICE, as our law enforcement are simply fulfilling their sworn duties to serve and protect our communities."

"Partnerships with law enforcement are critical to having the resources we need to arrest criminal illegal aliens across the country," the spokesperson added.

Another Texas city, Austin, has also begun implementing a similar policy change.

Democrats won both the US Senate and House of Representatives in Tuesday's midterms, taking control of Congress for the rest of Donald Trump's presidency.

Texas, a long-time Republican stronghold, was the site of one of the most stunning upsets in the vote, with the state electing its first Latina governor, Gina Hinojosa, as the first Democrat governor since 1995. It also elected its first Democratic senator since 1988.

Whitmire has previously faced criticism for abiding by immigration enforcement policies under the Trump administration.

He had resisted previous calls to implement similar changes over concerns that the White House could send a surge of immigration officials in response.

Abbott has also threatened to take pull millions in funds from cities like Houston, Dallas and Austin unless they allow police to cooperate fully with federal immigration officials.

The BBC has contacted Abbott's office for comment.

Whitmire's announcement comes a week after an ICE officer was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly hit a man with a vehicle in Texas.

Earlier this year, large protests broke out in Houston after an ICE officer fatally shot a man driving to work.

The deceased, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who lived in the US as an undocumented immigrant for decades, was not the intended target, officials said after the incident.